MAAC Melange 2015, was inaugurated on 9 October at Bangalore by well known filmmaker KM Chaitanya, Fire Fly Studio, co-founder, Sanath PC, director of Panyakoti Ravi Shankar and MAAC (India), Sr, VP, Shajan Samuel. The event had more than 350 Plus students attending across Bangalore.
Shajan Samuel in his welcome note said,”MAAC Melange is held with the objective of propagating animation & visual effects as a progressive career. The presence of accomplished guest and speakers is an inspiration to hundreds of media aspirants with dream in their eyes and fire in their belly.”
Shajan went on to add, “One of the biggest problems in this industry is overinvestment in marketing and underinvestment in academics. I firmly believe that academic conversion is the key. Animation still being part of vocational training skills has a flexible entry gate, but we need to make the exit gate tighter by having periodic T3 Programs for faculties, assignments, projects, exams after every modules, Industry exposure and guest lectures. All of this should be like a dial tone and not a tick on the checklist . Platforms like MAAC Melange bridges down the gap between perception and reality broadens our horizon and provides us with a 360 degree view on building careers in media and entertainment.”
Filmmaker KM Chaitanya spoke how traditional marketing was giving way to digital marketing. People spend maximum time on their phones so leveraging on digital medium is the best way to build visibility for films.
Fire Fly Studio, co-founder, Sanath PC showcased the making of Baahubali and highlighted how the the presence of a visual designer helped mitigate the transmission losses. Sanath detailed out the pre viz of Baahubali amidst thunderous applause.
Ravi Shankar, the director of the first crowd funded Sanskrit animation movie Punyakoti elaborated the idea of crowd funding. He said Illiyraja the acclaimed music director was the first person to support the movie, though they couldn’t raise their target of Rs 40 lakhs in the first phase of campaign.
Wish berry extend their campaign and they achieved their target on the final day. This was the highest money raised for any project on a crowd funding platform.
Punyakoti has now raised its pre-production budget; it now needs to raise and additional budget of Rs 60 lakhs for post-production. The first supporter for Punyakoti was a doctor from Singapore, he donated Rs 5 lakhs. MAAC is the pre-production partner of Punyakoti.
Ravi Shankar, a senior executive with Infosys BOP says its sheer madness and his love for Sanskrit which promoted him to make the movie.
MAAC students, employees and partners of Bangalore donated a cheque of Rs 25,000 to Punyakoti .
